The present invention relates generally to a portable manually held spreading device for spreading dry particulate material and in particular dry granular material such as seed or fertilizer over an area forward of the device.
Devices within the scope of the present invention are lightweight and can be easily transported and can be sized to hold varing amounts of dry granular material. Prior art devices are known which accomplish generally the same purpose as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,157,402; U.S. Pat. No. 3,227,461; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,341. However, such prior art device do not provide the beneficial arrangement provided by the present invention for selectively positioning a valve member within an opening between the storage chamber and the impeller to allow the maintenance of the valve opening, once set, without continual readjusting or maintaining a pressure or force on the valve setting means.
In general no prior art arrangement is known which accomplishes the objectives of the present invention.